U.S. Department of Education to make new financial aid form available to more applicants

The U.S. Department of Education announced Wednesday that the first six organizations will participate in a phased rollout of the 2025-26 form to apply for federal financial aid. It also made the application form available to high schools, school districts and others who want to participate in the next three testing periods.

In August, the department said it would begin accepting Free Application for Federal Student Financial Aid (FAFSA) applications in phases to iron out any issues before making an updated form available to all interested parties by December 1.

The phased rollout will make the app fully available two months later than usual.

The first test period starting Oct. 1 will include six community organizations. The department said Wednesday it had selected Alabama Possible; Bridge 2 Life in Florida; AIM College in Georgia; Education is Freedom in Texas; Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara in California; and Scholarship Fund of Alexandria in Virginia; to participate.

The six organizations will provide access to the new form to hundreds of participants in the first test period. The form will be gradually made available to tens of thousands of students in subsequent stages of testing.

“Each of these organizations has committed to recruiting over 100 students and associates, which will allow us to test the FAFSA system from start to finish, from application to processing to receipt by colleges and possibly even state agencies,” FAFSA Executive Advisor Jeremy Singer said on a call with reporters Wednesday.

Singer said each of the community-based organizations will host an in-person FAFSA event within the first few days of October.

“We’ll send some of our team members to these sites to observe and learn from our experienced partners, seeing how students and families are using the app, what’s working for them, what’s challenging, what’s clear and what’s not,” said Singer, who leads FAFSA strategy in the department’s Office of Federal Student Aid.

Next phases

Singer said the second test period will begin in mid-October, the third in early November and the fourth in mid-November.

Community organizations, high schools, school districts and higher education institutions have from Wednesday through Sept. 20 to submit an application to participate in the next three testing periods.

The department said it plans to notify those selected to participate in the second testing period by September 24, and to notify those selected to participate in the third and fourth testing periods shortly thereafter.

The department also worked to narrow the gap in FAFSA filings compared with the previous cycle. In March, the department reported that it had received about 40% fewer FAFSA applications than during the same time last year.

However, the department said this week the gap narrowed to about 2.3%.

The department also reported that about 500,000 more FAFSA filers applied for Pell Grants through early September than during the same period in 2023.

The updates on the 2025-26 implementation come as the department works to resolve numerous Form 2024-25 glitches and errors that advocates have raised concerns about. The application underwent a makeover following the December 2020 passage of the FAFSA Simplification Act.

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